The MQ Libelle on the roof of the Leopold Museum, which was inaugurated in 2020, provided the first architectural addition to the MuseumsQuartier (MQ) since its completion in 2001. The MQ Libelle and the adjoining terrace landscape represent a Gesamtkunstwerk, or universal work of art, created by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner with contributions by the Austrian artists Brigitte Kowanz and Eva Schlegel.
The architects Ortner & Ortner – who designed both the Leopold Museum, the Kunsthalle Wien as well as the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien in the late 1990s – pursued the vision of the MQ Libelle as a futurist platform hovering above the MQ. Drawing from their urban utopias of the 1970s and 80s, they elaborated their vision in series of large-format chalk drawings, which will be presented in a focus exhibition at the Leopold Museum from 9th October 2025.
The artworks created for the MQ Libelle by Brigitte Kowanz (Light Circles) and Eva Schlegel (veiled) are reflected in the two artists’ new, expansive installations in the Upper Atrium of the Leopold Museum, which are being shown in Austria for the first time.
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